Even as home networking trickles into the consumer market, the Catherine Bells and Steve Perlmans will keep pushing the limits of extreme tech. These obsessives are hardwired for conspicuous consumption, often with the emphasis on conspicuous. Take the story that Rich Green tells of dropping by Larry Ellison's house several years ago with a contract that totaled more than a million. The Oracle CEO looked it over, saw the price, and refused. Green reminded him this was the system they had agreed upon, the biggest ever designed.

"Nobody does this," Ellison snapped. Then he looked at the paperwork again. "Is it really the biggest?" he asked. "Bigger than Gates'?"

Green assured him that it was.

"Really?" Ellison asked. "Let's do it."

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Do It Yourself  for Less Than $20,000

Thanks to the trailblazing of the rich and famous, the price of home networks is finally trickling down to the rest of us. In this model home system designed by Rich Green, there are four ways to connect: cable modem for the gateway, phone lines for audio, electrical outlets for gaming and the kitchen, Wi-Fi for everything else.  Chris Baker

Connection: Wi-Fi

Wireless broadband is great, but the coverage can be limited. You may need an Ethernet or HPNA bridge to an additional access point in a distant room.

Connection: Cable Modem

DSL is on the rise, but cable is still easier to deploy, has higher bandwidth, and is more widely available.

Xanboo makes the ultimate poor man's security setup. Its devices use a proprietary AFM2 (418 MHz) wireless standard. This means that they're Web-accessible from anywhere in the world, and can instantly alert you to breaches via email, text message, or cell phone.